The 7th Continent

Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? They were popular in the 1980s. Instead of reading a book sequentially by page number, you jump around when confronted with a choice-fork in your adventure. If you choose option A, turn to page 63. If you choose option B, turn to page 92. There were usually only two options, more on a rare occasion. The storyline was tightly controlled and limited.

A layer was added thanks to Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone when they published The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, kicking off what became known as the Fighting Fantasy series. Borrowing inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons, your character now had stats. You rolled dice to fight creatures! My parents were unimpressed by such phenomena, and it was a while before I was able to borrow a dog-eared copy to experience the adventure for myself. (It was the original Puffin edition!)

Not long after, Joe Dever and Gary Chalk started publishing the Lone Wolf series. There were more stats to keep track of, and you were immersed in a wider world of politics and adventure – not just a dungeon crawl – each one continuing the story and immersing the reader in an ever-more complicated world. I eventually worked my way through the first five books, and I remember much anticipation awaiting each (borrowed) book.

That was the 1980s.

Fast-forward thirty-plus years, many adventure-style computer games in between, and we have The 7^th Continent – a behemoth card-game designed by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter. The box cover is cryptic and forbidding. There are hundreds of square cards with numbers on the back. These are your page numbers as you explore this new land and attempt to solve the mysteries therein. Unlike the books of the ‘80s, the game feels much more open-ended. You can move back and forth through different terrain, exploring little details, encountering strange creatures, finding unusual artifacts, and crafting items you need to survive this strange new world.

When you first play 7^th Continent, you think it’s mainly an exploration game. You lay down new cards as you extend your map and locus of knowledge. Soon you learn that it’s actually a survival game – you have to find food to replenish your energy, and find places to rest and heal from the many bad things that could happen to you. It’s like being Robinson Crusoe. And in fact, there are many echoes of similarity to the boardgame Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island. Except there’s literally a curse to be lifted. And there’s more than an island. The 7^th Continent is much more expansive and much more immersive.

There are several characters you can play. In the game shown, I’m Dmitri Gorchkov and am smeared with blood I haven’t been able to wash off yet. The scenario I’m playing is “An Offering to the Guardians”. I have a couple of experience points, I’m still standing despite the difficulties I’ve encountered, and I’ve found a treasure map. Among the items I have crafted are a woven basket (that helps me carry more stuff), a walking stick, and war paint. (I just noticed that all three begin with the letter ‘W’!) War paint helps if I’m taking an action involving battle, hunting, or camouflage (as indicated by the brown icons showing a sword, target, mask-disguise respectively). Other cards stacked below have their special properties too. The dice show how many times I can use each item-stack. Resource and card-hand-management is important, not unlike Friday – another Crusoe themed (solo) cardgame.

My strongest impression of the game is how immersive it feels. Flavor text on card is not just for show; reading it might be helpful and important. You do want to look carefully at the terrain cards not just to admire the artwork but because you don’t want to miss spotting something important. (A magnifying glass was included with the game!) The area to explore is expansive, and what you find or encounter is widely variable. I can see that after many plays, the gameplay can become tedious with things you’ve done or seen before that you have to “go through again”, but your first several adventures will be full of novelty and suspense. My one spoiler is that each scenario is a little longer than expected, so be prepared. My non-spoiler advice, included in the rule-book, is that you do start with the recommended scenario, the Curse of the Voracious Goddess.

While you can spend many, many, many hours exploring 7^th Continent on your own – it does support solo play well. However, if you have a small group (of 2-4) dedicated adventurers, you will have many moments of interesting group interactions and decisions that you will enjoy reminiscing over. Having to make group decisions, including when to do things separately, opens up many interesting avenues. Yes, it will slow the game down so that the adventure might take many more hours, but you’ll have an immersive group experience, something you would not have reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Does the game have drawbacks? Yes, it can be tedious when you have to backtrack or restart the game when you “lose”. You’ll be tempted to cheat a bit to get over parts you think might be repetitively tedious, and that’s okay – you probably did so on occasion with a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You could take copious notes and pictures, if you don’t have a photographic memory, or you could be like me and simply mosey around exploring because I don’t quite remember what’s where. By far the least enjoyable part is the mechanical work of constantly moving cards back and forth and shuffling decks. Those are things the computer would do in a computer game, and solo players may find this irritating. But following those mechanical steps is what provides variability and suspense to your gameplay.

Playing 7^th Continent gave me nostalgia for my younger days, when I first encountered the aforementioned adventure books. The four authors mentioned are among the six individuals acknowledged by the game designers; fittingly so, and I recognized all their names when I read the game manual. Those younger days were more carefree, when I had more time, and when adventures were exciting anticipations rather than tiring trials. But perhaps there’s something to be said about the poorer memory of older age. I can probably enjoy those adventure books again because I don’t remember any of the details. Well, except the Sommerswerd. I know I need it, but don’t remember how or where to get it.